A data communication interface (e.g., a DICOM protocol compatible interface) used in communicating medical data (such as a DICOM compatible Service-Object Pair (SOP) Class may experience degraded performance or intermittently fail without a site administrator being aware of the condition. The DICOM protocol comprises the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine protocol standard (developed approximately 1990) and a DICOM Service-Object Pair describes a DICOM data object and associated service, such as a DICOM Store_CT-Image, store_MR-Image, Print CT-Image data object, for example. The absence of awareness of degraded performance by a site administrator results in sub-optimal system operation, dissatisfied employees and may potentially harm patients because data carried across DICOM interfaces is often vital to patient care. A DICOM MWL (Modality Worklist), for example, is used to transmit patient and procedure identifiers from a Radiology Information System to Acquisition Modalities e.g. CT scanner, MRI device, Ultrasound. If this information does not arrive in a timely manner to the device performing the medical procedure, manual entry of identifiers is typically employed which can result in misidentification of patients or procedures resulting in delayed or improper care. There are a myriad of other examples in which the failure of information to arrive in a timely manner may impair patient treatment. A system according to invention principles addresses these deficiencies and related problems.